Public Affairs - Hints For Using Cadet Recruiting Posters and Brochures

Posters

Arrange to display the posters where parents and teenagers will see them. Ask permission where necessary and determine if there is a time limit.

• Library notice board
• School notice boards
• Community centre notice board
• Churches with youth programs
• Post office lobby
• Shopping mall notice board
• Bicycle/Skate board/Sporting goods shop
• Fast-food Restaurants
• Electronic game arcades
• Convenience stores frequented by teenagers
• Mount one behind Plexiglas or heavy cellophane on the cadet hall door
• Display one inside your cadet hall if it is used by other groups.
• Provincial Human Resources office Perhaps the police station and/or court house.

Add contact information to the poster in neat printing using a bold felt pen. A telephone number and/or cadet unit web page address would be minimal. Listing the day, time, and location of weekly parades would be more complete.

Leave posters up year round if possible. Secure them at all corners, top and bottom. Check on them regularly and replace them if they are damaged or removed.

Brochures

Brochures should be distributed with some control such as handouts when parents come to the cadet hall or at a specific recruiting event.

If a supply of brochures is left for uncontrolled distribution they should be where there is some reasonable security, such as on a counter in a rack with other brochures, or next to a manned location.

When you are locating places to display posters, leave a few brochures with the authority that allowed the poster to be displayed.

A brochure may be posted with a poster where space permits.

Provide your senior cadets with a few copies that they may hand out to their non-cadet peers or to be distributed among teachers at school.

Use the brochures as leave behinds on the tables at a service club speaking engagement. Collect any that are left at the end of the event.

Do a short interview about your cadet corps or squadron on the local cable television service and display the brochures and poster.

Provide a brochure to special guests invited to Commanding Officer parade night.

Have them available at mall displays and community ceremonial events.

Remember, when recruiting cadets it is important that you don't oversell the program or your units capability, personnel, and resources. Just as you expect a product to perform as advertised, your cadet unit must meet the expectations of the parents and teenagers who are attracted and "buy" the product with their children's enrolment. No amount of advertising or public relations will make up for a product that does not deliver or disappoints.